In an October blog post, Tesla CEO Elon Musk laid out his reasoning for skirting the
dealer model and putting the time and money into building a
network of Tesla stores.

By the time most customers go to a local dealer, he wrote, they
have made up their mind to buy the same kind of car they had
before. If Tesla could only sell cars in dealerships, it would
lose the chance to educate consumers about its new kind of car.

On top of that, Musk argued, since dealers sell primarily
gasoline-powered cars, they have a reason not to push Teslas:

Existing franchise dealers have a fundamental conflict of
interest between selling gasoline cars, which constitute the vast
majority of their business, and selling the new technology of
electric cars. It is impossible for them to explain the
advantages of going electric without simultaneously undermining
their traditional business.

An Ongoing Fight

The North Carolina bill is the latest salvo in a fight that has
been going on for a long time. By October 2012, Tesla was facing
lawsuits in New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Oregon,
accused of violating state laws that protect dealerships.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from
Business
Insider, and Musk has been surprisingly quiet on Twitter.

Vice President of Corporate and Business Development Diarmuid
O'Connell told Slate "he’s hopeful that the state legislature
will amend the bill so that it doesn’t prohibit Tesla from doing
business there."

Since the bill would impact only Tesla (all the large automakers
already sell cars through dealers), it's unlikely the bill will
have such an amendment.

Here's the strong language and free market argument Musk used to
rally supporters in Texas, revealed in an April 2 email obtained by Forbes:

It is crazy that Texas, which prides itself on individual
freedom, has the most restrictive laws in the country protecting
the big auto dealer groups from competition. If the people of
Texas knew how bad this was, they would be up in arms, because
they are getting ripped off by the auto dealers as a result (not
saying they are all bad – there a few good ones, but many are
extremely heinous). We just need to get the word out before these
guys are able to pull a fast one on us

For everyone in Texas that ever got screwed by an auto dealer,
this is your opportunity for payback.

Now that the North Carolina bill has been approved by the Senate
Commerce Committee, it will have to pass the full Senate, then
the full House, and be signed into law by the governor.